Aug. 28: College of Fine Arts Appoints New Faculty Members for Academic Year

Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts Appoints
New Faculty Members for 2008-2009 Academic Year

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University has announced the hiring of 15 new faculty members in its College of Fine Arts for the 2008-2009 academic year. Comprised of renowned teachers, internationally recognized artists and practicing professionals, the new faculty hires represent the college's long-standing dedication to the recruitment of leading talent from industry.

School of Art Names New Faculty Members

The School of Art has appointed Jacob Ciocci, Jill Miller and Stephanie Syjuco as visiting faculty members and Richard Pell as tenure track faculty. Ciocci, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon's Master of Fine Arts program, joins the school as a visiting professor of art. His exhibits, screenings and performances have included venues such as the Sundance Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art.

Miller, an assistant visiting professor of art, is an internationally regarded artist who has worked with such noted artists as Paul McCarthy, John Baldessari and Mary Kelly. She has received grants and awards from the Arts Council England and the D'Arcy Hayman Foundation, among others. She has also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of Arts.

Pell holds a B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon and a M.F.A. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has served as assistant professor at the University of Michigan's School of Art and Design and at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has been published in a variety of publications, including Engineering Culture and the Journal of Surveillance and Society. His work has exhibited internationally in such venues as the National Center for Contemporary Arts in Russia, the Israeli Center for Digital Art and the Center for Art and Media in Germany. He is a recipient of the Rockefeller New Media Fellowship and the Rhizome New Media Art Fellowship, among other honors.

Syjuco, an internationally acclaimed visual artist, is the Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art. She has exhibited in such museums and galleries as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum, and has taken residencies in The Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Center for Metamedia in the Czech Republic, among others. She has had visiting faculty appointments at Stanford University and The California College of the Arts.

Four Appointed to School of Music Faculty

The School of Music has appointed Richard Cowan, Marjorie Bagley, Richard Randall and Laura Knoop Very to its faculty. Cowan, an assistant professor of voice, has appeared in leading roles as a singer in the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Berlin Deutsche Opera, and has been featured in several commercial films, including "Madame Butterfly." His awards and honors include being named National Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera in 1985 and the Grand Prize Winner of the Concours International de Chant de Paris in 1987.

Bagley joins the school as an artist lecturer in violin. A renowned violist who has held faculty posts at music schools across the country, Bagley has appeared across Western Europe and the United States, performing as a soloist with the Utah Symphony and the Berkshire Bach Society Orchestra, among many others.

Randall joins the faculty as an assistant professor of music theory. He holds a bachelor's degree in music performance with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music, a master's degree from Queens College of the City University of New York and a Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music. Randall has presented papers at a multitude of conferences including those for the Society for Music Theory and the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. He has also held teaching posts at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Northeastern Illinois University and Roosevelt University.

Very, an assistant professor of voice, holds degrees in performance from the New England Conservatory and Yale University, and has appeared in numerous Pittsburgh Opera Center main stage productions. She has also starred in productions at The Metropolitan Opera, the Washington National Opera, the National Symphony and others.

Four Professionals Join School of Architecture

The School of Architecture has appointed Pablo Garcia, Dale Clifford, John Folan and Mark Pasnick to its faculty. Garcia, who joins the school as a professor, is an interdisciplinary architect working in theater, film, photography and installations at various scales. He holds architecture degrees from Cornell University and Princeton University, and has taught at Princeton and Parsons The New School for Design. He recently served as the William Muschenheim Fellow in Architecture at the University of Michigan, where he presented "Parallel Projects," an exhibit of recent works.

Clifford, who holds a master's degree in architecture from MIT, is a principle of the architectural practice Binary. He is a founding member of the Emerging Materials Technology group at the University of Arizona and has also served as senior designer with the biotechnology firm Molecular Geodesics, Inc.
Folan joins the school as the T. David Fitz-gibbon Visiting Professor of Architecture. He is a licensed practicing architect and tenured associate professor at the University of Arizona and is a co-founder and board member of the Drachman Design Build Coalition.

Pasnik joins Carnegie Mellon as The Lucian and Rita Caste Professor in Architecture. He is a principle in the design firm over,under and a director of the pinkcomma gallery, both in Boston. He received degrees from Cornell and Harvard before working for nearly a decade at Machado and Silvetti Associates and teaching at the California College of the Arts, Northeastern, the Rhode Island School of Design and Wentworth. He has also authored three books and numerous publications.

School of Design Names Two New Faculty Members

The School of Design has appointed Barbara Sudick as its Nierenberg Chair of Design and Frank Armstrong as a visiting faculty member. Sudick holds a master's degree in graphic design from Yale and has more than 25 years of professional experience working with such clients as IBM, The New York Public Library and the Educational Center for the Arts.

Armstrong is a renowned instructor and lecturer in graphic design at California State University, Chico. He holds a master's degree in graphic design from Yale and has more than 20 years of experience as a consultant and 15 years as an educator. His work has been published in numerous books and journals, including Meggs' History of Graphic Design and Rob Carter's American Typography Today.

Drama Selects Weems To Head Graduate Directing Program

The School of Drama has appointed Marianne Weems, co-founder and artistic director of the world-famous New York performance company The Builders Association, head of its graduate directing program. In this leadership role, Weems will bring her expertise in theater directing, dramaturgy and interdisciplinary media to the school's diverse talent pool and offer her students an innovative education experience in New York.